And yes, I so agreed with your take on Shyamalan! For me it’s nearly all downhill from The Sixth Sense on, The Lady in the Water being the absolute nadir, although he did pick things up a bit in recent times with Devil (closed-box, mind-bending stuff that he wrote/produced, ahem, hint, hint) and The Visit.

Speaking of The Usual Suspects, guess what, I just got Keyser Sozed again in a recent-ish blockbuster in the most unexpected way (duh!), just couldn’t see literally the same trick coming at all (double duh!!). You probably knew what movie I’m talking about anyway, seeing that you have watched soooo many movies mentioned here on THiNC alone, how do you even get the time, haha (nervous laughter)? In any case, I can’t reveal its title having already spoiled its twist ending, haha (ironic laughter?).

The thing about Eli is that it is a one-trick pony, the one trick being THE TWIST. Granted it is one twist that I would presume not very many people would be able to guess correctly. So props go to the writers for coming up with such an original and brazen plot twist. Now is the twist here any more bizarre than, say, Matthew McConaughey’s Serenity’s or John Cusack’s Identity’s? Unlike Serenity or Identity though, Eli does not have much in the rest of the movie to prop up the whole shebang if the twist fails to register. In my experience, some of the greatest movies with a mind-bending twist that changes everything before it, like The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects, are blessed with a story so rich and so full of intrigue that they can stand on their own even without the twist ending. No such luck with Eli, sadly.

Just my 2 cents FWIW. I must say I’m a little surprised Taylor has seen fit to put up his review of Netflix’s Eli, which I hope has not taken the place of another more deserving Netflix Original, In The Tall Grass (I promise this one be good, or better than Eli anyway, haha), but I’m glad that he did.

I will give you literally any correction you’d like to make to this post – carte blanche. Just consider it conceded.

Now, about this movie. Just because they decided that the “church” would be the surprise right-hook doesn’t mean I’m going to fall for it. Especially when the “church” is some sort of counterfeit lameness. Yes, it was a surprising turn. Yes, it was shocking that the house was actually an old church or nunnery or something. And yes, it was a little shocking to find out that mom had sex with satan. heheh. But the story wasn’t exactly airtight, now was it?

I am totally fine with them throwing the church under the bus. Whatever. But do it convincingly. This pentagram cross amalgam cult group just didn’t make any sense. But yes, it was a clever trick. They just didn’t land it. No? I mean, did you think they landed it?

For what it’s worth, even knowing that everything is just setting up for some clever or awful twist come the end, the reveal still caught me by surprise somewhat. From my experience, when obligatory supernatural horror tropes like dream sequence, creepy ghost child, jump scares, etc, are featured so prominently in the suspense part of the movie, it stands to reason that the plot twist then has just got to be something less supernatural and more grounded or something psychological, right? So yeah, at least the movie has made a refreshing twist on the … twist, I suppose.